Sunder Navalkar, working class messiah, is dead
Veteran communist leader and a fighter for the unorganised sector in the country, Comrade Sunder Navalkar breathed her last at her residence in Central Mumbai yesterday. Her exact age is not known as some claim that she was 99 years old, while some others claimed that she turned 100 last September. She was single, but married to the cause of the working class and Marxism-Leninism.
Navalkar was an advocate by profession and chose to use her legal knowledge for the benefit of the working class, instead of making money.
Born in a rightist family of lawyers, with her family members being part of the Hindu Mahasabha, she moved away from the ultra-right path of the family to ultra-left over the years.
Navalkar was drawn to communist ideology at a young age and was disturbed by the exploitation of the working class and the growth of capitalism and imperialism as she saw it.
She was humble and stayed away from publicity. Though just about 153 cms in height, she stood tall in her fight for the working class, especially the contract labour and construction workers.
She has several labour battles to her credit, but among the biggest can be said to be her fight against Air India. She challenged the engagement of labour on contract for tasks, which were of a permanent nature, like house-keeping. At a time when Air India was a mighty organisation, she won her legal battle for the rights of the workers, with an order from the Supreme Court that such contract labourers should be given permanent employment.
Navalkar had a simple life-style, draped always in a spotless white khadi saree, her residence in Mumbai was rather small, with numerous books. She was a voracious reader and those who visited her, always left her home with more knowledge, with interactions with her. Most often she travelled by bus and train, to save on costs.
She participated in the Freedom Movement, joined the Communist Party of India and moved away from the party, when she felt that the party was being revisionist. She was greatly inspired by the uprising in Naxalbari and teaming up with two of her associates, Sunil Dighe and Laxman Pagar, she established the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) [CPI(ML)] in Maharashtra. She did not confine herself to the party, when it came to taking up the cause of the working class. She was an active participant in the all-India railway employees’ strike in 1974 and also opposed the Emergency.
A hardliner, in a sense, within the left movement, she did not agree with the change of political stance by her comrades of the various factions of the CPI(ML), especially Vinod Mishra and Satyanarayan Singh, who advocate participation in the electoral process. The faction led by Comrade Navalkar was then called Central Team CPI(ML). She also started Jasood, a Marathi fortnightly devoted to the working class and Marxist-Leninist ideology. She was the editor of Jasood and was often seen selling the copies of the magazine at working class rallies.
Comrade Subodh More, who called on her on March 3, this year, recalls that around three years ago, he saw Comrade Navalkar waiting for a bus. More recalled his last meeting with Navalkar. He said, “She still had a sharp memory and spoke vociferously in support of the working class and against the growth of capitalism in the country. She was a true fighter.”
Had it not been for her health due to age, she would have been out on the streets during the lockdown last year, to take up the cause of the migrant labour.
Just as she fought and lived, she left the working class—silently and alone. The restrictions on assembly of people, deprived her of a funeral she deserved.